How Top Docs are selected

The selection process for IJ’s Top Doctors edition is conducted by Castle Connolly’s physician-led research team.

It begins by asking thousands of physicians and health care professionals to identify excellent doctors in every specialty in their region and throughout the nation.

The Top Doctors listings are updated annually and physician profiles are altered whenever Castle Connolly’s research staff becomes aware of changes in a doctor’s status.

One question, however, continues to be the most asked about how Castle Connolly selects its Top Doctors: Do physicians pay to be listed?

Doctors do not, and cannot, pay to be selected as a Castle Connolly Top Doctor. Castle Connolly follows a rigorous survey, research and screening processes.

Here is how it works. Castle Connolly . . .

★ Selects only physicians who are board certified and for whom the company has validated that the board certifications are current.

★ Uses “minimum years in practice” standards, based on the medical specialty, because studies show quality increases with clinical experience.

★ Surveys, by mail and online, thousands of physicians and other health care professionals and asks them to identify excellent doctors in every specialty in their region and throughout the nation. While the nomination process is anonymous and confidential, each invitee has a unique access code to the nomination website. This code helps ensure doctors do not nominate themselves.

★ Makes thousands of phone calls each year, talking with leading specialists, chairs of clinical departments and vice presidents of medical affairs, seeking to identify top specialists for most diseases and procedures.

★ Reviews the credentials of every physician under consideration, including his or her medical education, training, hospital appointments, administrative posts, professional achievements, and malpractice and disciplinary history. Information on outcomes, procedure volume and malpractice is becoming increasingly available, but the public disclosure varies from state to state. Castle Connolly uses its best efforts to gather the information that is available and use it effectively. Ultimately, however, it is the professional judgment of the Castle Connolly editors, the chief medical and research officer and the research staff that determines Castle Connolly Top Doctors selection.

Each of the selected doctors is asked to complete a comprehensive professional biography form and also provide information on his or her special areas of expertise. The information contained in the biographical forms becomes an integral part of selected doctors’ listings in the guide.

Physicians also may be removed from the Castle Connolly lists. Some of the reasons physicians are removed are retirement, change in practice (taking a fulltime administrative post, for example), unavailability to patients, malpractice or disciplinary issues, negative physician or patient feedback, professional demeanor or a change in the “mix” of specialists Castle Connolly will present for a given community.

Being removed from a Castle Connolly list does not necessarily indicate something negative about the physician. At the same time, Castle Connolly does not claim to identify every excellent physician in the nation or a region. The physicians identified through the Castle Connolly research process are clearly among the very best, but there are always other very good physicians not identified by Castle Connolly.